Cale Caldwell didn’t plan on being a soldier, but an Army ROTC scholarship helped pay his way through UNC. Before Cale could begin a job with an advertising firm in Chicago, the first Gulf War interrupted his plans. Luckily for Cale, he served in the war with his good friend, fellow Tar Heel King Kirby. The two young men worked with a seasoned veteran, Pug Moseley, in a psychological operations unit. They were good at their work–creating pamphlets and other propaganda that encouraged the enemy to surrender rather than fight. They saw some bad things, but nothing that they couldn’t leave behind.

Or so Cale thought. When the book opens, it’s now more than a decade later. Kirby has just committed suicide, and Cale has come from Charlotte to New York City to help Kirby’s mom sort through his possessions. Cale is having a tough time himself. His wife has died in a car accident, and his teenage daughter hasn’t been able to come to terms with her mom’s death. Unable to accept the story of Kirby’s suicide, Pug and Cale poke around in the past even as more bad things happen to Cale and his family in Charlotte. Soon the men know that someone from their past is out to destroy them, and the hunter and hunted reverse roles as the novel moves to a dramatic conclusion.